What sketches scared you as a kid?

Hi there! I'm new to this wonderful forum and glad to know I'm in good company! I have read this whole thread all 51 pages and I had to reply to this particular thread! The cartoon that you are referring to with the man face changing shape gave me severe nightmares! They was also a lady that did the same thing nose changing the whole bit! I would scream loud that I think the neighbors thought my mom was beating me to death! I couldn't even go up to the tv to change the channel because I was terrified that it would come through the tv! That was the most scariest thing I ever saw on ss. One time when it came on, I was literally trying to climb the wall to escape! To this day I can't look at morphing faces or pictures of drawings my kids do of profiles because this clip gave me such truama that I would burst out in tears! If it ever showed up on YouTube, I would never look at YouTube again. All I can say is that is far most the creepiest, scariest and traumatizing clip ever! Now that my hair is standing on end, I hope I can sleep tonight!

ANother one that sent me screaming was this animation (if you could call it that!) of an elephant counting to twenty. I was frightened by the Spanish version. It was so long too! He counted twice and everytime he got to fourteen, he'd angrilly repeat it (Fourteen) over and over until it appeared on screen!

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The counting-elephant cartoon was actually made for a Swedish children's show in the 70s; the title of that show translates as "Five Ants Is More Than Four Elephants". The original Swedish soundtrack of the counting cartoon had the numbers set to music (barely audible in the English version); the angry frustration over "14--14--14" was part of the song, too.

The pink elephant was a recurring character on "Five Ants" (sometimes part of a father/son duo); he usually taught letters and numbers. (He's probably best known for a very catchy alphabet-song cartoon, in which he corrects the younger elephant's mistakes from time to time.)

Incidentally, the elephant cartoons came from the same artist as the "Swedish Number Animations" that some of you might have seen on Sesame Street in the 80s; CTW borrowed those from the "Five Ants" program to use in their Swedish co-production of Sesame Street, and later dubbed them for use in America.

And does anyone remember the weird cartoon
where an elephant counts to four by kicking
its legs? When it crashes to the floor, the trees
around it end up being cardboard set pieces
that crash, too. I loved this one!

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That one appears in one of the episodes where the cast flew to Hawaii, though I forget the exact episode number. (Search YouTube for "Sesame Street" plus "elephants have four legs"; it'll turn up!) I agree, those crashing trees and the elephant landing flat on its back scared me a little when I was younger--another "character falls and gets hurt" moment, which always used to bother me.

I remember the anti-pollution skits! But they never scared me...they made me cry!

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Welcome to the proverbial club. I always felt sad when Willie Wimple did his damage to the world, and sadder when I saw the "if every kid did it" extremes. At least, the intended lesson hit home; seeing trash out of place brings back those awful memories!

However, there were also a few (non-Jim) animated bits that were bizarre - namely, the one where a little toad is berating a cow. "You think you're so big?" The frog keeps puffing itself up with air until it's all pear-shaped and wobbly, saying "Bigger... BIGGER..." And then finally it explodes and the screen goes white! We never see that it's "ok" (in that Bugs Bunny explosions-just-made-their-faces-sooty way), we are to assume that the arrogant little amphibian died. How upsetting! I hated that one but would love to see it again today.

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I remember that poor toad--proclaiming that she** was "bigger than a mountain...[puffs up for the last time]...BIGGER THAN THE WORLD!" before she exploded. And like you, I inferred that the explosion killed her ("pride goeth before destruction", anyone?). Very disturbing; they'd never air anything like that on Sesame Street now!

**The toad had a female-sounding voice, so I'm assuming it was a "she".

Hi there! There was one other clip that also made run and scream, it was an apple tree on a hill with creepy bagpipe music, it almost sounded like Irish music! Well it finally showed up on YouTube! I froze in my chair came and got my husband and kids so they could see it and understand why I'm terrified of bagpipes! They thought the clip was funny!
What my hubby did was grab the from YouTube and place it in photoshop and chopped it all in pieces so I looked at all the pieces separately then I got up the courage to watch it from beginning to end and it was ok but it looked different from what remembered, I guess things do look more intense through a four year old eyes.
I was proud of my self that I was able to watch it sort of but I definaitly won't go out of my was to see again though!
That was my third most scary clips from ss, but the two others that I mentioned in the previous post by far was the severe trauma I encountered! I dont think that any amount of clipping in photoshop would help me face my fear with those clips!
~Clarkie~

The one that scared me as a kid was the animated segment from the 90s or late 80s of computer animated fish counting down, suddenly this Sand Tiger Shark comes on screen looking sort of realistic with demon eyes with a deep voice "ONE!", I would always hide or shut my eyes if I see that and can't wait until it's all over, sometimes I would forget it's the same segment and my heart would start racing in fear. Then of course feel a heck of a lot better when Ernie and Bert would come up next lol They were always my favorites on Sesame, that and the Honkers, Dingers and the Yip Yip Martians.​

There was no call for that to be on the show ever, and I can't believe they hid an entire episode because The Wicked Witch of the West was considered too frightening, but this was deemed perfectly fine. There is nothing fun or educational about that sketch. It's just jarring, and disturbing, even as an adult.

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(watches the sketch)
Yow, that animation is pretty freaky! And that mutant rabbit wasn't even running after them, he was just WALKING!
The fast rock/drum music is actually pretty cool, though! Except when it went silent when the mutant rabbit went by the trees.

I think when they showed the sketch w/Ernie "the world's greatest counter of numbers" again , they cut out Bert running into the camera. (I'm pretty sure it unnerved a lot of kids.myself included!)

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Heh, I always thought that would often be cut because they were worried kids would imitate Bert there, because of how he banged his head on the table several times (ala Don Music!) before running into the camera and out the apartment!

(watches the sketch)
Yow, that animation is pretty freaky! And that mutant rabbit wasn't even running after them, he was just WALKING!
The fast rock/drum music is actually pretty cool, though! Except when it went silent when the mutant rabbit went by the trees.

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YIKES! That Raggy Rabbit is scary looking. Almost as bad as the first Snuffy back in the day. The rabbit is like in the combination of Yellow Suberine, Underground Comics and a Wet Saggy Dog with Rabbies. WOW, Shocked that this was on Sesame. WOW. lol This was 70s Sesame right? Thank God I grew up with 80s and 90s Sesame so I didn't witness this. lol Again, WOW!

I think when they showed the sketch w/Ernie "the world's greatest counter of numbers" again , they cut out Bert running into the camera.
(I'm pretty sure it unnerved a lot of kids.myself included!)

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Heh, I always thought that would often be cut because they were worried kids would imitate Bert there, because of how he banged his head on the table several times (ala Don Music!) before running into the camera and out the apartment!

Ernie's great counting thing is slowly driving Bert crazy. At the end, Bert just finally snaps, he yells and runs to the table and bangs his head on it several times, then runs toward the camera screaming, then we can hear him run out and slam the door!
I could see a reason why they'd cut that ending would be because they thought kids would imitate Bert's actions, like kids imitating Don Music's head-banging.

I think these all would have been mentioned at least once over the last decade, but here are my nominations anyway (in no particular order):

1) The sound of B with the Beautiful Day Monster - especially the last few seconds where BDM makes that unearthly 'BBAAAHH' and the screen goes white.

2) The Scanimate floating face counting to 10. Still looks and sounds disturbing now. But the Scanimate effects were brilliant for their time.

3) Kermit reporting on the wicked witch and the Magic Mirror: the beardy face in the mirror scared the life out of me (can't remember who it was - Jerry Nelson?)

4) The 'Danger' sketch with the word 'DANGER' getting into all sorts of bad situations (falling off a cliff, emerging from a darkened room), and the very creepy voices that went with it

5) Another 'Danger' sketch - the armless walking baby coming up (creepy enough) to the 'Danger' sign and imagining all the dangerous situations the sign is alluding too (especially the tentacled alien)

6) The number 1-20 drill parade, that '0' drill segeant was so horrible and shouty and scary.

7) Seem to recall being frightened that the cartoon 'M' that ate everything on the dinner table, including the screen, would come after me next.

8) +1 for the red hot 'I' beam and the menacing voice that came with it.